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Pillbugs, also known as woodlice, roly-polies, or land shrimp are a very common arthropod in the same taxonomic class as Shrimp and lobster. These small arthropods, are very recognizable, they have 11 body segments, and can be seen curling up in a ball for defense. They can easily be found under rotting logs or bark, they love moist places with lots of rotting organic matter. Pill bugs can be found worldwide and very abundantly in the United States. All woodlice are in a taxonomic suborder called Oniscidea, therefore they could be in a number of different genus, some of the common ones are Armadillidium, Oniscus, and Porcellio.

Edibility and Culinary Use

Many people do not know that pill bugs are edible. Not only are they edible but from my experience some of them do in fact taste similar to shrimp. Any bug should be cooked before eaten, but some people eat them raw. They make a great sauce, or they can be added to soup. There are a lot of other ways to cook them including, mixed with, dough, egg, or rice.

Health Benefits

Porcellio scaber and Oniscus asellus

The high protein content of bugs is a known benefit. These arthropods probably contain a similar nutrient analysis to shrimp but would have to be eaten in abnormally large numbers to represent a substantial nutritional portion of anyone’s diet.

Cautions

There are thousands of species of pill bugs around the world, most of them are edible. To determine if they are edible first of all make sure it is not a pill millipede, which looks similar but is smaller, smoother and rounder. Next determine that it has no bad smell, and finally, you should not continue eating if it has a bad taste. In general the pill bug species that curl into a ball (Genus: Armadillidium) are more likely to be edible and tasty, but many of the others are as well.

Conclusion

The pill bug is one more thing to add to the list of forgotten edibles that makes me wonder, “why aren’t more people eating these”. Even in the realm of entomophagy, you don’t often hear about this one, but it is delicious and very accessible. The taboos of eating bugs in western culture are illogically strong, and this is one taboo that we would benefit to change.

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5 comments on “Land Shrimp, A Small Relative Of Our Favorite Seafood”

Entomophagy got into my head pretty much overnight some random day and now I just set up my cricket and mealworm farm.
After I saw a bunch of pillbugs in my garden, with my new open mind about edible things, I just thought completely naturally “Well… why not?”. I’ll probably breed this little guys too, so crunchy 🙂

Thank you very much for that correction. I have since changed the article to be more accurate. I tried to look back and see where I had originally gotten that information but couldn’t find it. Thanks again.